Sunday, January 17, 2010

SHOT SHOW 2010: WHAT A GUN BUYING CUSTOMER WOULD LIKE TO SEE

The Shot Show, the annual firearms manufacturer show, is upon us, and perhaps some of the manufacturers will be reading the web in the aftermath seeking reactions from attendees.I'm not attending, but as a gun buyer who has been actively spending money on firearms, particularly handguns, here's what I'd like to spend my money on next year. WALTHER, BROWNING, HENRY, HK, SIG SAUER, COLT, SMITH AND WESSON AND A FEW OTHERS, I'M TALKING TO YOU! Do you want my firearm dollars? I'll assume there are many out there like me who feel the way I do.

BROWNING:Bring back the two-tone Hi Power practical. Billy Ray wants one. Fixed sights please. While you're at it, design a compact model of the Hi Power Practical weapon, perhaps of a single stack design. I know it would be radical to redesign the grip/magazine size and feeding mechanism, but it could be done. Dehorn it. Make it concealable.

COLT: Start making the Detective Special, Diamondback, Python and Cobra again, and sell them at a quasi-reasonable cost. These guns are part of your legacy. Many concealed carry permittees have discovered the reliability and the safety of the revolver as a carry weapon. If I read a recent blog post accurately, a hammerless S&W snubbie is now the best selling handgun of all time. I can't recall which one exactly, but you get my drift. They are, bar none, the finest revolvers ever made. You could even make a limited edition vintage Cobra, with an exposed ejector rod and the old style grips, and charge a premium for it.While you're at it, start making the Huntsman and Woodsman pistols again. All of them. They were muey excellanto .22 pistols, and there is no reason not to start making them again. I think you'll sell them faster than you can make them.Finally, if you don't want to reintroduce the snubbie line, or if you and you want to make a really cool combat revolver, then here goes: Diamondback frame for .38 +P, ribbed 3" barrel, low profile combat night sights, dehorned and smoothed and call it THE MC: MODERN COMMANDO.HECKLER AND KOCH: Start making the P7 again, with both heel and button magazine release. The .40 caliber crowd will want one as well, so make both 9mm and .40 caliber. If the gun could stand the increased pressure, make a model in .357 sig. This is the finest firearm your company has ever made. Sell it for a price a working man can afford.Sell a .22 conversion kit for it, so that it can be inexpensively shot.HENRY RIFLES: Make a .22 caliber lever action pistol a'la Mare's Leg (Laig) from the Wanted: Dead or Alive series. There are several folks making larger caliber versions of these, but they are going for $1,200 or more. You have to manufacture it as a pistol, but base it on your large loop .22 and sell them for $600 and you can sell them all day long. SIG SAUER: WHERE IS THAT 9MM THE SIZE OF THE NOW DEFUNCT MODEL 232? SOMETHING ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE WALTHER PPS. Surely you've got something like that working back in R&D?SMITH AND WESSON: There is much you are doing right, particularly in the Classics and your revolver line. I hear great things about the 1911's and the M&P and in fact, I shot my last qualification with one in .40 caliber.I'd love to see a non-Ladysmith version of the Ladysmith Model 65 .357 Magnum. What an attractive weapon with a 3" BBL. Put some low profile combat sights on it, front and rear for a snag free draw. Nice wide combat trigger and maybe some kind of slightly bobbed and serrated hammer, one that could be cocked if necessary but that would be more concealment friendly. Sort of like the one Taurus is using on their Public Defender pistol. Except you could call yours THE PROSECUTOR.You've done a lot of great things with the re-release of the Classics line, but here's one I'd like to see: A Smith and Wesson version of the ASP. Buy the rights to the name from whoever owns it now. Use a super hip micro compact 9mm model 39 derivative pistol with an alloy frame and a great barrel. Dehorned to the max, with a safety/decocking lever and a spurred combat hammer similar to those on 1911's. A nice wide trigger. Great sights. Crimson Trace grip panels. And most importantly, the transparent "lexan" panel in the left grip so that a check reveals the number of remaining rounds.

WALTHER:I've always been a fan of your pistols, owning several since 1976. Two suggestions: (1) make the PPK and PPK/S in a blue finish, or some sort of dark stainless. I miss the blued PP series pistols. (2) Make a .22 caliber Walther PPK/S. Make it also in a blued or dark stainless finish. Sell it for under $500.00.MISCELLANEOUS:I'd like to see a reasonably priced version of the Semmerling .45 go into production, with some sort of super hip polymer IWB, ankle and belt holsters for it. I'd like to see the C.O.P. 4 shot Derringer come back into production, with an alloy or polymer frame and a much better trigger. I'd like to see Pachmayr get into the laser grip business, as I really like their grips.I'd like to see someone, anyone (Remington, Marlin, Henry, Winchester, EMF, etc.) make a Mare's Leg (Laig) replica in .22 caliber. With a price of under $600, which is double retail on the regular rifle model. You make a shortened barrel and stock, and do a shortened version of the tube magazine and shazamm, you got a lever action pistol.It'd be a fun to shoot gun. Of course, if they made in them in other calibers, that'd be cool too. Make them as a pistol and there is no BATF troubles. It doesn't seem like it'd be that hard to do. But a reasonably priced .22 is what I'd really like to have.